my 8 and a half month old is not babbling

[koalove]

and im worried! he just does the same shrieking sounds hes done for ages. he does ahhhhhhhh, eh-eh-eh, and thats it. no consonants. he is however taking his first steps, so could that be where his focus is? he seems to know his name and turn when i call him, but is that a good indicator that theres no hearing issues? tell me what you think please because i now find myself constantly listening and watching and getting more and more concerned.

[2boyzmama]

It might not be anything, but you're right to pay attention to it. Speech development can vary a lot, and there can be lots of reasons why speech might be delayed.

You mentioned hearing...hearing is very complex, and not at all what most people think it is. I hear people say all the time "he startles, so he must hear" or "she turns to my voice, so I know she hears me".

Here's a link to what's called a "speech banana", it shows what decibels and frequency speech sounds occur at:
http://www.pasadenachilddevelopment....r2008-May.html

Now here's a link that shows several audiograms. See how the child will still "hear" a lot, but might be missing certain speech sounds?
http://www.babyhearing.org/HearingAm.../audiogram.asp

Here's another picture of a speech banana:
http://edschool.csuhayward.edu/depar...echbanana.html

So if a child were to have a 40dB loss across all frequencies, they would still hear most environmental sounds around them. They would still respond to their name, still startle when the dog barks, still turn towards the tv. They also will probably still turn when you enter the room because they're very in tune with vibrations and movement. But they can't hear any of the speech sounds between 0-40dB, which includes a lot of the typical "babbling" consonants.

SO...while I think that 8 months might be a bit early to worry, it is something to pay attention to because if there is any hearing loss, getting it treated and/or getting the child aided early is important.

[prothyraia]

For what it's worth, here's our experience.

My second didn't really play with language for the longest time. He could obviously hear and understand what was said to him (we'd ask him to go get things when he was a year old, and he would). We could sometimes, with great effort, get him to babble a little bit by playing mimicry games, but he lost interest quickly and almost never did it independently. He also didn't make any attempts to sign even though we'd been signing with him since he was just a few months old.

He was around 16 months or so when he signed 'more' for the first time, then rapidly picked up a handful of other signs and words (including mama!). Now at 20 months he's developed a surprisingly large vocabulary, slips in a few two-word sentences every now and then, and is getting more and more chatty with a larger and larger vocabulary.

I was fairly stressed out about his late speech (his older brother was an early talker), but kept calming myself down because 1) he had passed his newborn hearing test, 2) he was very sociable, enjoyed interacting with people, and communicated nonverbaly very easily, 3) was running at 10 months and otherwise spending a lot of time and energy on gross motor skills.

I think it's definitely worth talking to your pediatrician and ruling out anything that might be affecting his ability to hear and speak, but barring any complications (or severe neglect) kids will start talking on their own timetable. For my younger son, talking just wasn't a priority when walking and jumping and doing somersaults had yet to be conquered. ; )

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

My first didn't babble EVER until right around his second birthday. I was very worried at 8 months. Hell I was worried at 4 months. He barely made sounds other then crying for a while (Of course I fear vaxxes had soemthing to do with that, but we will never know :cry) My point is, I can't get him to stop talking now.

My second was and is the exact opposite. All kids are different. Keep an eye on it, but my gut says its just his way, and he will be fine.

[Abraisme]

My DS didn't babble much either. He did go on to be a late talker (said mama at 2), but is now a totally normal 6yo. Once he started talking it came on fast! Most likely your baby is perfectly fine.

[lil_stinkyfeet]

Did he have a newborn hearing screen? Like 2boysmama said hearing is complex, My speech delayed kid is also hearing impaired and kids are very good at compensating and "appearing" like they can hear you.

Assuming there are no issues with his hearing then I wouldn't worry at all. 8mos is still very young and especially to be starting to walk! My earliest walker was 14mos and I would imagine that it takes a lot out of a kid to learn to walk especially at 8mos.

[newbiemama09]

from what i've read, it's very common that boys don't talk until later (like 2 or 3). boys tend to make "grunting" noises and short sounds ("eh" "da" etc) and that's perfectly normal. i have a friend who has a almost 2 year old and he STILL doesn't say words yet, just a lot of grunting noises.